Expert: Yemen 'Near-Perfect Haven' for Terrorists
The fight against al Qaeda in Yemen highlights complexity of ongoing war.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2010— -- When President George W. Bush declared a "war on terror" shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the country of Yemen failed to make the short list for the so-called "axis of evil." But U.S. counterterrorism experts say the southernmost country on the Arabian Peninsula has, nonetheless, been closely monitored ever since.
Now, Yemen has been thrust into the media spotlight after reports of active terror plots against Western embassies have forced many to close and intelligence information suggests would-be Christmas Day bomber Umar Abdulmutallab may have been trained and equipped for the attack at an al Qaeda camp inside the country's borders.
"Yemen is a near-perfect haven for terrorists from South Asia," Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told ABC News. "A year ago, it was hard to talk about Yemen in Washington with everything else [facing the administration]. But it's always had the potential to rise to the top of the list real quick."
Obama administration officials and terrorism experts insist the threat of terrorism emanating from Yemen is nothing new and had been a concern well before the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 Dec. 25. "From the very first day of this administration, we've been focused on Yemen," President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, said on "This Week" Sunday.
Still, the recent flurry of developments in Yemen, including a covert U.S. missile strike on an al Qaeda training camp Dec. 17, represents a sobering reminder of just how difficult the multi-fronted effort to defeat al Qaeda has become, with one expert likening the ongoing struggle to the Cold War.
"When you really remember what people said in 2002 after 9/11, they were all talking about the 'long war,'" said ABC News national security analyst Anthony Cordesman. "Everybody's forgotten that."
Despite the U.S.-led "wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Cordesman said, the effort to defeat al Qaeda is essentially a counter-insurgency or counterterrorism effort that could go on indefinitely.
"We did this in the case of the Cold War for over half a century and basically we didn't defeat anyone, they collapsed," Cordesman said. "Nothing we can do short of make a combination of efforts at strengthening governments, strengthening economies and direct counterterrorism will make any of these problems likely to be solved in less than a decade, if at any point in the foreseeable future."
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